Toy Story

Today, back in 1950, Silly Putty was invented.

My primary memory of Silly Putty was using it to pick up comics in the Sunday paper.

You could stretch out the Putty from inside the plastic egg over the cartoon and the image would transfer onto the putty!

Then you could stretch it and make it even funnier.

Eventually, you rolled the Silly Putty back into a ball and bounced it off a wall or sculpted it into some other funny or interesting shape.

What kinds of toys did you enjoy as a child?

Slinky.  I had a basic one.   Not very good or fancy, but I could get it to "walk" down the stairs.  It always required steps of the right depth to work well, and the old house we lived in didn't meet those qualifications.

Etch-a-Sketch was a favorite of mine.  Kind of like a prehistoric tablet compared to the ones many kids play with today.  By spinning the two dials, you could create a maze or crude drawing (I wasn't very good at making art; mostly lines and shapes).  If it looked silly, just shake and a clean slate was provided.  Not bad for something made with magnets and iron shavings.

Top.  There were the old-fashioned tops that came with a handle that as you pushed into the body of the top would  make it spin.  Others you held between thumb and index finger and spun into action.  I could play with a top for a real long time.

YoYo.  Never got very good with the YoYo; not until I was into my teens and the number of tricks I could do was pretty limited.


Pogo stick.  Our neighbors had two girls older than me by five years or so, and after they went off to college the neighbors let me play with their pogo stick.  My friend and I would compete to see how many we could do before falling off or losing balance.  I think a number between 110 - 120 was about as far as we could make it on the rough asphalt driveway.

There must be more. 

More than these for me were the Matchbox, Hot Wheel, and Tonka cars and trucks that I drove through imaginary streets and by-ways.

Lego blocks (when they were just sold and didn't come with instructions or designed to make the Millennium Falcon) could stretch into the sky if balanced correctly.  They were houses and creatures and provided hours of fun and lessons in patience.

All I have left of those toys are a few of the cars and trucks, but I'll keep the memories with me as long as I live.

The Caterpillar tractor is one I still have; sitting not far away.  I played with it - a wonderful scale model my Grandpa bought for me while I was spending time with he and Grandma one summer.  The Chuck E Cheese bubble pen became a family joke; we "won" it at a Chuck E Cheese restaurant and I convinced the kids it would last longer and have more value if we left it in the package.

I would say the toy I played with as a kid provides better memories.  I hope you have similar memories to share!